Disposable needles have been proposed in the art, such as disclosed in allowed U.S. application Ser. No. 08/932,109, filed Sep. 17, 1997, entitled "CONNECTOR FOR REPLACEABLE BIOPSY NEEDLE." That patent application discloses a snap-lock connection for selectively connecting the needle and handle together. The snap-lock connection of the aforementioned patent application better ensures that the needle remains sterile when assembled onto the handle.
Other two-piece needle constructions for retrieving biopsy samples are known from U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,522,398 and 5,634,473 of Goldenberg et al., both of which are assigned to Medsol, Inc., and U.S. Pat. No. 5,429,138 of Jamshidi.
In all of these designs, a complex handle mechanism has been proposed whereas there remains a need in the art to have a unitary, disposable handle and needle assembly which provides a control for the operator to retrieve a biopsy specimen. What is further needed and has not heretofore been available is a disposable handle and needle assembly which is suited for collecting bone marrow biopsy specimens.